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A Manhattan man admitted Monday that he kidnapped his former lover in Newark by binding her in Christmas lights and then drove south toward Florida before federal authorities captured him in North Carolina.

Rudolf Szoradi, 50, who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and interstate domestic violence, threatened to kill the victim while attacking her in his relative’s basement on Dec. 15, 2017, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

The woman, who’d gotten a protection order against Szoradi, was choked, punched, kicked and then stabbed and slashed with a knife before being tied up and taken across state lines, an FBI complaint on file in U.S District Court in Newark says.

She repeatedly tried to escape, but Szoradi -- accusing her of cheating on him – overpowered her each time, it says.

He then bound the woman in the Christmas lights, put her in the back seat of a relative’s car and stole the vehicle, heading toward Florida.

They were driving through North Carolina when the woman convinced him to get her medical attention, the federal complaint says.

After stopping at a hotel in Garner, NC, to try and mask some of the injuries, Szoradi took the woman to a hospital in Clayton, NC, the FBI said.

Authorities were summoned while the woman was being treated for several stab wounds and cuts, two black eyes, various bruises and face and neck trauma. They arrested Szoradi at the hospital.

Surveillance video shows him dropping the knife into a trash can near the emergency room entrance, the complaint says.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, Szoradi must serve no fewer than 7 years and three months in federal prison, and possibly up to nine years, followed by five years of supervised release.

U.S. District Judge Jose J. Linares scheduled sentencing for April 2, 2019.

Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI with the investigation leading to the guilty plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Feldman Nikic of his Criminal Division in Newark.